The Effect of Antioxidant Vitamins on Liver Function Enzymes and Hepatic Damage of Aflatoxin $B_1$ treated mice

Aflatoxin $B_1$ 투여 마우스의 간 기능 효소 및 간 손상에 미치는 항 산화비타민의 효과

Aflatoxin $B_1(AFB_1)$ is a potent hepatotoxic and hepatocarcinogenic mycotoxin in human beings. It is accumulated in animal tissues and injured cell through variable metabolic pathway. This study was conducted to determine the effect of antioxidant vitamins on liver function enzymes and hepatic damage of $AFB_1$ treated mice. The 6 weeks old male ICR mice were randomly separated 6 groups, vehicle solvent or vitamin C(10 mg/kg/day) and vitamin E(63.8 mg/kg/day) were administered by intraperitoneal(i.p.) injection and 1 hr later, vehicle solution(DMSO) or $AFB_1$(0.4 mg/kg) were injected. The results obtained as follow ; The levels of liver function enzymes such as GOT, GPT, LDH, and alkaline phosphatase, in sera of mice were remarkably elevated by treatment with $AFB_1$ only. However, those enzymes were significantly alleviated by co-treatment with antioxidant vitamins(p<0.01). Especially the levels of LDH and ALK phosphatase were similar to those of control groups(p<0.01). The transmission electron microscopy(TEM) image of intracellular microrganelles on the liver cell of mice was also degenerated extremely by treatment with $AFB_1$, but vitamin C and vitamin E gave good effects on cellular deformation. The intracellular microrganelles such as mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, nucleus and nucleic membrane were nearly disappeared the cellular deformation by antioxidant vitamins co-administration. With above results, we could estimated that antioxidant vitamins blocked AFB1 induced hepatic cell damage.